With the season of Halloween among us moreover a time for fall, pumpkin spice everything hopefully not everything. I figured why not take a dive back into my childhood of spooky media that I grew up watching. Now, if you were my age you'd grew up with some of these mild-mannered family themed Halloween movies or shows and really one of them was this TV special created by someone I'd never expect, Shelley Duvall and TV-esh show was titled Shelley Duvall presents American Tall Tales & Legends and one of first episodes was the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, for which this was my first introduction to that story of a school teacher whose chased by a mysterious Horseman without a head. And so, now re-watching this hidden gem I got to admit this really wasn't all bad, in fact I was impressed with some of the set designs they were able to do in terms of visuals moreover the look and feel to it that really brought back a nostalgia to it that I never expect to come back. And really, if you we're my age again these were the shows and movies that you'd grew up watching because my parents would never in a million years let me watch A Nightmare on Elm Street or The Shining so, this was one of these things I was allowed to watch. The impressive factor of this version of Sleepy Hollow was that Beverly D'Angelo plays Katrina Van Tassel for which I completely forgot but was impressed with her portrayal mainly because I look back on Vacation looking down on how dumb her husband was is a little on the surreal. Even to the ending of this episode it's still interesting the way they were able to adapt this into TV show about American legends for many reasons if you were wanting to adapt this as its true format I don't think you'd get a better story wise on film then you would TV and thank God for Tim Burton in being able to make it a mystery film.
Another one of those movies/shows that I grew up watching when it comes to the story of Sleepy Hollow, was the Adventures of Ichabod and Mister Toad, which really is not at all true because Mister Toad was an insane Toad that's blowing off his money like a stockbroker blowing his drug money on cocaine. Though let’s be honest it's Walt Disney so he had to of come up with a title that would work in the fifties. Though again if you'd get past the story about Mister Toad, which is really about a Toad who spends so much money on things he doesn't need and for some reason is accused of a crime he didn't commit but any way this is all about Sleepy Hollow so we're skipping Mister Toad and talking about Ichabod Crane. Like, the Tall Tales & Legends version it's basically the same premise where the schoolteacher Crane is trying to win the affections of Katrina for which his rival Brom Bones is trying to do the same for which leads to one night on Halloween, fate occurs when you bring up a spooky legend of the Headless Horseman. Now before I forget anything the Legend of Sleepy Hollow was in fact based on a short story by Washington Irving, and having watched the Tall Tales version and the Disney version I kind of thought in my own point of view that the character of Ichabod Crane is a generous man but is also a superstitious man who is for some reason is afraid of nighttime moreover can't get any sleep at all for which is strange to me because I even I don't know how that makes any sense in terms of how that can be portrait and deep down I think the better portrayal of Crane if I had to compare these two nostalgia themed movies and episodes is definitely Disney's version because in Shelley Duvall's show they kind of over did it in terms of Crane's paranoia with the night time although it's funny but a little confused as to why they would think that was funny. Having relived some of these childhood movies and shows, I’m not going to lie in how fun it was to look back on these media to Sleepy Hollow and now I have the need to re-watch Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow because I'd truly would say that is probably the best version of Washington Irving's short story, for many reasons if you portrait-ed it the way Irving did, you wouldn't have a better version of Sleepy Hollow. Now, I don't know if I would recommend the kids in wanting to watch these hidden gems, for many reasons kids now a days are just watching everything that there is no way at all they would want to watch these media but if you're a grown man like me who loves reliving the nostalgia with movies and shows I'd highly recommend watching these hidden gems of Sleepy Hollow.
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